STOCKTON - When Elkhorn School eighth grader Grace Lin-Cereghino decided to spend her summer planting and maintaining a garden at her north Stockton school, she didn't realize what it would become.

That's not to say the 13-year-old Lin-Cereghino didn't think the 10 large planter boxes would be a prime spot on campus for tomatoes, squash and other vegetables.

"She did this and it turned into a club," said Elkhorn teacher Kristen Burrell. "She started this and now we have a group of 30 that meets every Friday."

The Elkhorn Garden Club has become a weekly science lesson for the middle school age students such as Lin-Cereghino and for some of the school's elementary students like Maya Peyton, 10, who have been placed in charge of bringing any leftovers from lunch that can be made into compost.

"We just bring it out and put it in the compost bin," Peyton said. "Pretty easy."

Lin-Cereghino, the daughter of two micro-biologists at University of the Pacific, is excited to see her summer project take off. The winter garden will replace watermelons and other summer choices with vegetables such as kale, radishes and snow peas.

"I think it will be good to plant some beets," she said, adding that she's also proud that the produce from the garden has been donated to the food pantry at Stockton's Church of the Presentation.

Elkhorn is a Gifted and Talented Education magnet school that has earned its reputation on a nearly perfect score of 995 out of 1,000 on the state's Academic Performance Index. Burrell said she likes that the garden club offers a chance for those that do so well with learning to get some hands-on experience.

"They get their hands dirty. They need that," Burrell said.

And how well the produce turns out depends on individual taste.

"I think it's all good ... except the tomatoes," said fifth grader Jenn Chau, 10. "Just because I don't like tomatoes."